Murder of doctor in Mogadishu reminded me of the civil war

[Thegoodshepherd]

The murder of AUN Dr. Buurane, a dermatologist, in Mogadishu this week reminded me of other episodes of killing medical personnel.

In August 1992, eleven men-including two Somali staff of the ICRC and three members of the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS)-were killed in the southern port of Kismayu. The eleven men, along with their families, were attempting to board a flight and leave Kismayu under ICRC protection, when a truck that they were in was diverted from the airport by forces loyal to General Aideed.

The victims were members of the Majerten and Dulbahante sub-clans of the Darod clan. Despite animosity between the Darod and the Habr Gedir, these people had elected to stay in the Kismayu area to continue assisting the foreign staff of the ICRC after Habr Gedir forces under General Aideed's command took control of Kismayu in May 1992.

However, by August 1992, the ICRC and SRCS staff members along with their families-a total of 45 people-asked the ICRC to help them leave Kismayu. The group planned to travel to Garoe, a city in the northeast where the Darod predominate and where they felt they would be safer. As the ICRC had transferred two other people several days earlier, they did not expect any difficulties at the airport. Nevertheless, the ICRC spoke in advance with the leaders of the various factions in Kismayu about the transfer and obtained signed promises guaranteeing safe passage.

On August 19, a truck bearing ICRC and Somali Red Crescent symbols, accompanied by a car carrying a pregnant woman and escorted by two technicals (four-wheel drive vehicles mounted with heavy weapons), drove the group of 45 people to the airport, 20 miles outside of central Kismayu. The ICRC had scheduled a flight to arrive from Mombasa, Kenya, with 10 tons of food, and then planned to transport the people from Kismayu to Garoe. When the vehicles approached the airport, the men guarding the airport did not allow them on the tarmac. The airport guards were new men who had replaced those that the ICRC had dealt with just several days before. The guards informed the ICRC staff that they had to wait outside the tarmac until the plane landed and that no one was allowed to leave the airport. They also refused to recognize the papers signed by the SNA authorizing the departure of the 45 people, even after the ICRC staff went to the city and brought the SNA official who had signed them. The guards stated that the official who signed the papers was not their commander, and became upset when the ICRC officer asked them who their commanders were. After the plane arrived, the guards surrounded it with their technicals and threatened to blow it up.

While the ICRC expatriate staff was attempting to defuse the situation and ensure the safety of the plane, another group of guards told the driver of the ICRC truck that was carrying the people to turn around and return to the ICRC's offices in town. The driver complied with the orders and began to return to town, escorted by a technical carrying airport guards. On the way back to town, the men in the technical prevented the truck driver from returning to the airport after ICRC staff-who encountered the truck on the road-had ordered him to take the families back to airport.

Shortly thereafter, the armed men in the technical told the truck driver to stop and ordered the passengers to get out. Armed men appeared from the surrounding bush and encircled the truck, and the male passengers were separated from the women. The armed men then marched the eleven male passengers into the bush. Several minutes later gunshots were heard. After the shooting, the truck driver walked back from the bush to where the truck was parked and told the guards to release the women and children, as the men had been killed. The women and children were released, and the truck was ransacked, apparently to make the incident look like the truck had been ambushed and looted.

The following day, a sister of one of the men who was killed went to the area, where she found 7 or 8 bodies, one of them her brother, who had been shot in the leg and mouth. The families of those killed and the woman who identified the bodies were later evacuated from Kismayu.

The murder of AUN Dr. Mohamed Ali Warsame, the foremost gynecologist in Somalia, by the USC 2 years after Darood left Mogadishu is also memorable.

Dr. Mohamed Ali Warsame, a gynecologist and one of the best-known doctors in Somalia, went missing and was probably murdered in Mogadishu in November 1992. It is believed that Dr. Warsame was killed because he was a Darod, and as a prominent doctor aroused the envy and anger of Hawiye doctors affiliated with General Aideed's wing of the USC.

Dr. Warsame had originally fled Somalia after the fall of Siad Barre and lived temporarily in exile in Kenya. While in Kenya, Dr. Warsame contacted S.O.S. Kinderdorf, an Austrian non-profit organization that since 1985 has run a school, maternity clinic and orphanage in Mogadishu. (He had been a consulting physician with SOS-Kinderdorf before going into exile.) In November 1992, Dr. Warsame agreed to move back to Mogadishu and assist SOS Kinderdorf with their maternity hospital, despite some hesitation about his personal safety because Dr. Warsame was a Darod and the clinic was located in a part of Mogadishu controlled by General Aideed's Habr Gedir troops. Prior to his departure, SOS Kinderdorf consulted with their medical team in Mogadishu to ensure that Dr. Warsame would be safe.

On November 11, 1992, Dr. Warsame flew into Mogadishu and was driven to the SOS compound. He was given a tour of the hospital and shown his room. At 6:00 that evening, Dr. Warsame came to the main office and then walked out of the building with a Catholic nun who worked for the organization. An eyewitness to the abduction told Africa Watch that soon after this, a white car was seen inside the SOS compound, the gate of which was open, and a man pushed Dr. Warsame into the car. Guards who were supporters of Aideed's USC and who had been hired by SOS under pressure from Aideed's men, were responsible for the abduction. One of them was the one who pushed Dr. Warsame into the car.

Staff from SOS immediately went to General Aideed's headquarters to inquire about Dr. Warsame's whereabouts. A USC official told them that they did not need to look for Dr. Warsame any longer because he was being taken to see Aideed. However, Dr. Warsame never reappeared and his body was never found. Although there has been no confirmation, his family believes that he was killed several days after his abduction. Several other SOS staff were threatened and had to leave Somalia.

1993 Human Rights Watch Somalia Report

I remember reading this report years ago, and what stuck with me were the instances of USC killing medical workers. It takes a special kind of cruelty to kill a gynecologist in a country where over 95% of women have FGM.

 

[Ascended Farax]

The murder of AUN Dr. Buurane, a dermatologist, in Mogadishu this week reminded me of other episodes of killing medical personnel.




The murder of AUN Dr. Mohamed Ali Warsame, the foremost gynecologist in Somalia, by the USC 2 years after Darood left Mogadishu is also memorable.


1993 Human Rights Watch Somalia Report

I remember reading this report years ago, and what stuck with me were the instances of USC killing medical workers. It takes a special kind of cruelty to kill a gynecologist in a country where over 95% of women have FGM.

This is why Xamar will never be my capital

 

[codewebsduh]

Why was this doctor killed?

 

[Dalalos_ibn_Adali]

AUN the doctor gacan ka xaqdaran baa dishay, we Somalis love each other we just want peace and prosperity and we curse those who wish for war and clannism. We especially curse those who tribalize our heroes the SNA.

 

[Misil]

In 2003 one of the best eye specialists the country had ever seen was killed in Muqdisho. He was Hariin Mirifle and brother of Shatigudud. May God have mercy on both of them:

Prominent doctor killed in Mogadishu
NAIROBI
A prominent doctor and younger brother of faction leader Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud was killed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Wednesday by unknown gunmen.
Dr Husayn Muhammad Nur, one of the best eye specialists in Mogadishu, was gunned down in front of his clinic by unidentified gunmen, his colleague Dr Abdullahi Farah Aseyr told IRIN on Thursday.
The reason for the killing is not yet clear, but sources in Mogadishu told IRIN it had been "a kidnapping gone bad", because he resisted.
"It is a huge loss not only for our profession and his family but for the people who depended on him," Aseyr said.
He told IRIN that Husayn, who returned from Italy in 1990, had declined to leave the country "as many other professionals have done".
"He felt he was needed here and he stayed," he said.
Aseyr added that the killing would have "a chilling effect" on other doctors "who are in the diaspora, and who we have being trying to encourage to come back".
"Even those who are still here are re-evaluating the situation," he said. "It would be a disaster for a health system that is already weak if any more doctors were to leave. Something has got to be done to stop this madness."
He said that since the beginning of the civil war in 1990, over 27 doctors and some 50 other health professionals had been killed, while many more had left the country.
Aseyr appealed to Somali political leaders to "once and for all resolve their differences and put the interests of their people ahead of their own".
"We cannot afford to lose any more Husayns in such a senseless manner," he said, adding that the Medical Association was meeting "to decide on how to deal with this situation".

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/report/44708/somalia-prominent-doctor-killed-mogadishu

 

[Hassan Garguute Buldanana]

Cursed colonial project. Killing the few specialist doctors left that they themselves and their families need. Brain dead morons

 

[codewebsduh]

Cursed colonial project. Killing the few specialist doctors left that they themselves and their families need. Brain dead morons

Clan militias think it's a win for their tribe if a doctor from another tribe is killed. Just like how they believe today blowing up Mogadishu is a win for their tribe.

 

[@shininglight]

This is so upsetting.may he rest in forever peace.